Unit 2  What is happiness to you?

s2: yes. i saw a letter written by ma jie. he has a problem now.
s1: i read his letter, too. he is confused and i think we should help him.
s2: i think so. do you think there is a solution?
s1: of course. every problem has a solution. maybe he should first decide what kind of person he wants to be in the future. if he wants to be a professional basketball player, he can spend more time in basketball training. if he wants to go to a good university, he should place stress on study.
s2: but is there a way to make everyone happy?
s1: just as an english idiom goes: you can’t please everyone. he must make a choice.
s2: but he doesn’t want to give up neither of them. is there a solution he has not tried?
s1: he just told us his feeling on our school’s website. maybe he can tell his feeling to his parents and his coach. sometimes adults can give us wise advice.
s2: i hope so. maybe his coach can allow him to study hard to go to a good university. after he goes to the university, he can spend more time on basketball.
s1: i also hope he can do well in both study and playing basketball.
t:  well done!
 
step ⅲ skills building 3
t: just now we talked about how to identify a problem, how to break a big question into smaller ones. it’s time for us to give advice. how to give advice? which guidelines should we follow? i will give you some minutes to discuss the question in groups of four.
several minutes later.
t: have you finished?
ss: yes!
t: ok! which pair would like to present your work?
s: our group, sir. in our opinion, if you want your advice to be persuasive, you should give some similar examples to others.
t: i think so. people would take your advice easily if you give them similar examples.
s: from our point of view, if someone asks us for advice, they want to receive help from us. so we needn’t criticize others.
t: very good opinion. that is to avoid judging others. will other group give your result of discussion?
s: our group thinks that we should give specific advice to others, not in general.
t: i agree. if you are giving advice, be sure to state what kind of advice it is. i’m very glad that all of you have done a very good job. i made a conclusion of your discussion.
show guidelines in skills building 3 to the students.
t: now it’s time for you to practice. i will give you a topic. suppose your friend has asked you for some advice on preparing for a school sports competition. make a dialogue with your partner. i will check whether you have mastered the three guidelines.